"There is only one PiE" - Zipcar pays visit to UC Berkeley

Written by PiE Team on Apr 26, 2013

PiE staff members gathered with representatives from UC Berkeley, Ford and Zipcar to celebrate PiE’s victory in the 2013 Students with Drive Grand Prize contest. PiE and UC Berkeley were presented with checks for $10,000 each to fund their activities in the coming year, and an additional $5,000 in Zipcar credits that PiE will use to help transport mentors to high schools in the 2014 PiE competition.

After the ceremony, the Zipcar and Ford representatives were taken on a tour of PiE’s lab headquarters in O’Brien Hall on campus.”We were thrilled to have Zipcar come to campus” PiE staff member Armita Manafzadeh says. “We wanted to show them what Berkeley students can do.”

Zipcar representative Austin Marshburn spills the reason why PiE stood out to him: “There is only one PiE. There are a lot of bigger groups out there doing great things, but they’re more widespread. I liked that there is a student group that didn’t get their start from a larger umbrella; it’s pretty cool knowing that there’s a Berkeley-based group that recruits their own members and then goes out and does something special in the community - in a world where we need more people getting into math and science.”

“It’s always a treat to be able to bring company representatives to Berkeley to show them what we do,” says PiE director Aditya Yellapragada. “We always appreciate showing corporate representatives, in-person during events like this, the impact of their continued support.”

“Pioneers in Engineering is only able to help the Bay Area community grow through the generous dedication and donations our sponsors provide, and we thank them for that.”